This is s technology blog with emphasis on new web applications and technology but I do talk about other interesting stuff.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Podcaster: Native Podcast Client for iPhone and iPod Touch

The popular iPhone web app podcaster.fm is about to get a lot better. Tomorrow, I will be submitting the app to the app store. I have been working non stop for the past 2 weeks putting it together and it's about 99% complete. It allows you to listen to audio and video podcasts by streaming just like the web app but it also allows you to download podcasts and listen to them when your offline (iPod Touch) or on edge(Old iPhone).

The interface is broken out in 3 sections.My Podcasts - Displays all your podcasts. This screen also allows you to refresh your podcast list to see if there are any new items.Unplayed - Displays unplayed podcasts. Downloads - This is where you can see all your downloaded items.

Initially all sections have no items. It is up to you to subscribe to podcasts. We have provided several ways to subscribe. The easiest of which is to search our Podcast Directory. You can search by podcast title. If you cant find what you are looking for, you can use 1 of the other 3 methods to subscribe. Import from podcaster.fm account. Import by feed url and import by opml url.

After you have setup your podcast list. You are ready to listen. Simply select the item you want and click play. The podcast starts streaming in the media player. You also have the option to download the podcast. We have put a max limit of 40 MB for this current release but that is temporary and will be lifted in future updates. You can download as many podcasts as will fit on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

I have worked really hard to bring everyone (including myself) a great product. Similar to podcaster.fm, I am sure I will put out a slew of updates over the following weeks and months that will improve usability. Since I cant send this app out to anyone for testing, I want to hear your comments on the video. Thanks and enjoy.

I had to make it 40 MB for now. I will take it off in a few weeks. Just let me get the hang of how users will use the new app. The app will not be free. I think for free, podcaster.fm is a perfect alternative. I have not decided on a final price.

I had assumed that the terms of service for the iPhone API meant that this app could not be written. If this shows up in the store it will be my reason for buying the iPhone.

I currently use a podcast client for Nokia that sits in the background, I know that the API blocks you from doing this on the device itself, but can you use Apple's background servers to host such a service to allow users to get update messages when podcasts are available?

Great work and I am very much looking forward to this as well! Quick question though. One of the things I like about the native podcast support is that it auto mutes when a call comes in and then plays again when I'm done talking. I've noticed other streaming apps like Pandora can't do this. Will podcaster work the way mp3/podcasts do in this regard?

Dave: For some reason, after a phone call, the app goes to the phone book. I will try to fix this. I also included a button to play in safari. If you do that, then while the podcast is playing, you can use the rest of your phone. WOrks best with long podcasts.

I really dont see what problem Apple would have with this program. First of all, they cant deny a program just because they also have podcastsd. Secondly, podcasts are free so why would they care, they approved my web app. Pandora radio allos users to listen to music and bypasses the iTunes store, they still allowed it. Finally, it does not matter that it downloads a lot. Again, Pandora Radio and AOL radio both stream like crazy and they got in.

@almerica: I'm not saying they won't. I'm just saying I'll be surprised if they do. Apple can't control anything on the web. I can setup a website that lets you download 1GB of files and apple doesn't have any control over that.

When it comes to local apps they obviously have the control and excercise it often. If they didn't care about bandwidth concerns they wouldn't have pulled the NetShare app.

Your app has the potential to have people pull massive amounts of data...each BOL episode is like 25MB. Video podcasts are usually in the 200-300mb range. WiFi is no issue but imagine how fast people will eat up gigabytes of data.

Are there any other apps (not web) in the store that have the potential to pull this much data? If so, then no worries.

This is great. Ive been searching daily to see if it made it into the App Store. Have you decided on the price? Please dont make it to expensive as you know someone will clone it and make it cheaper. Also you will sell more if its like $0.99-$1.99 than you would if it was more. From what ive seen and heard.

Perhaps it would be possible to limit downloading podcasts to only happen when on wifi, if that is the blocking issue with Apple. It would be great to be able to download it over any kind of network connection, but if it has to be limited to wifi to be approved, that would definitely be preferable to not being available at all. Very best of luck.